Thoughts and comments on the Oscars, films and everything else

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Jake won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in Brokeback Mountain !

Well, the picture says it all -yes, I’m a girl, therefore, I love to add shiny thingies. Much love to the British Academy, who *truely* knows how to give away their awards. Or to the most deserving folks, anyways. Even though they totally snubbed The Constant Gardener. Full list of winners is here.

I saw Syriana today, directed by the talented Stephen Gaghan, and I am glad to say it is an excellent movie on our very troubled times. No, it’s not another ‘liberal’ movie as you may have heard, but a smart and fairly balanced view of what the United States is doing in the Middle East. It certainly is a political film, just as Munich was, but that doesn’t necessarily means it is biased or unaccurate. Plus, this is a multi-layered plot, which works on several levels, so it’s entirely up to the viewer to draw his own conclusions. That’s why the movie is so intelligent. It embraces every character’s point of view, offering a complex, comprehensive overview of the situation. I love movies which get you thinking that much. Personally, I very much agree with what this one is trying to say; in today’s world, economics (and what entails, eg. greed and corruption) overrule any sense of fairness, or human morality. Yes, it’s a somewhat depressing statement, but it’s true. As Lemony Snicket would say, “the sad truth is that the truth is sad”.

Oh, and can I say how I love this poster design ? So very brave not to stick all the big stars’ faces. And that tagline, “Everything is connected” ? Genius.

And last thing, take look at this ! Columbia Pictures released this gorgeous teaser poster for Spider-Man 3, and Gosh, is it brillant. It looks kind of eerie, doesn’t it ? Also looks like the Venom storyline will definitely be included, but that’d mean Sandman would be a “secondary” villain, and… Nevermind the speculating. We all trust Sam Raimi, don’t we ? I certainly do. Spidey swings back into theaters in May, 2007. And that’s such a loooonnnggg wait from now !

March is drawing near, and that can only mean one thing : Oscar-time !

Yesterday was the usual Academy Awards Luncheon, as if all these nominees didn’t keep bumping into each other during the countless other ceremony awards, eg. the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Directors’ Guild etc.
The fun thing with the luncheon is that the Academy is talking a sort of graduation picture, and you end up with loads of talented people posing for the same photographer (nope, that’s not a Vanity Fair cover).
Last year’s picture was *the* greatness. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were standing right next to each other (squee!), and so were Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen (all hails to the Sideways cast).
Thomas Newman, Marty Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Charlie Kaufman and Cate Blanchett, which are five people I really look up to and consider as genius were all on the photo as well. Have fun trying to find them -people who can actually spot the five of them win my eternal friendship !

This year’s picture is great, too !
On the pic, I can identify the following people (can you ?) : William Hurt, Diana Ossana, George Clooney, Joaquin Phoenix, Terrence Howard, Keira Knightley, Steve Spielberg, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Catherine Keener, John Williams, Dan Futterman, Charlize Theron, Matt Dillon, Tim Burton, Colleen Atwood, Reese Witherpoon, Paul Haggis, Gustavo Santaolalla, Amy Adams and Felicity Huffman.
That’s 23 people out of the nearly-hundred standing here, and most of them are from the acting categories… I feel lame, shame on me. And I haven’t improved a bit, because on last year’s picture, the one just above, I could put a name on the very same number of faces, that is 23.
Oh, can I say how Heath and Michelle look so very cute together ? And she’s holding his hand ! And that’s the most talented young couple ever !
You can also notice Steve Spielberg standing very near Tim Burton, which is more genius that I can actually bear. These are my two favorite directors, folks. If Ridley Scott had made it to the pic…
I love how Joaquin Phoenix stands all broody. Heh.
And Jake looks very handsome, as usual. Am so glad he gets his first Oscar nomination at the age of 25, it’s just wonderful. Sure enough, Keira Knightley beats everyone because she’s 20 -but I have to say, I disagree with her nomination. I like her a lot, but what she did in Pride and Prejudice was nowhere Reese Witherspoon’s amazing performance in Walk the Line. And yet, they’re running in the same category…

And can I whine about David Strathairn, or lack thereof ? He didn’t show up, and it upsets me. To tell you the truth, I’m “muchly vexed” he wasn’t featured in the Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue portfolio in the first place. But that was okay, because this year’s theme was the New Hollywood. But no appearance at the Oscar luncheon is just “uncool”, as Count Olaf would say.

I’ll just drop a few words on Walk the Line and the New World. They were released on the same day here, and both are beautifully-told love stories although they’re very, very different from each other. Performance-wise, Walk the Line deserves all the praising it’s gotten and every award it has earned so far. That’s the miracle of acting; take Hollywood’s perky leading lady and turn her into a fiery, strong-willed character who matches the intense presence of a seemingly shy and mild-mannered actor. Reese Witherpoon’s performance is as delightful as Joaquin Phoenix’s is engaging. Their electric chemistry is very much palpable, especially when they’re both onstage and singing, with much efficiency. Give them the golden statuettes already ! And despite a somewhat classic directing, neglicted plotlines and obvious similarities with previous musical biopic Ray, it is an overall catchy, heart-stopping movie, mostly thanks to its performers. The New World offers a classic story, the against-all-odds relationship between Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas (although we only learn her name when the end credits roll). It’s a pity the movie does not achieve the same level of success visually than story-wise. Although Terrence Malick’s trademark, poetic style does provide the necessary credibility to the romantic aspect of the movie, it takes a long time before the viewer can fully empathize with the characters. Surely, Colin Farrell could have done with a bit more facial expression -in many ways, he reminded me of Orlando Bloom’s subdued Balian in Kingdom of Heaven. Newcomer Q’Orianka Kilcher, on the other hand, excells and surprises in a very challenging role. Photography is one of the movie’s most attractive aspects, and DP Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (one of my favorites) deserves his Academy-Award nod on this one.

To sum it up, I highly recommend both movies because they’re real good, despite occasional flaws here and there. Not every movie is called Brokeback Mountain, y’know.

First off, I want to congratulate Jake for his Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor ! I’m so very happy he got the recognition he deserved -the Golden Globes scared the shit out of me, because the silly guys at the HFPA didn’t gave a nod to Jake… but the Academy did, and that’s all I was asking for. 8 nominations for Brokeback Mountain, I couldn’t get any prouder of the movie and of everything they’ve accomplished so far !

This is the part where I start telling about my life, so you can stop reading now if you want to. Yes, I’m currently re-reading Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events, hence the warnings and advice about giving up reading this. Heh.

I had an amazing weekend, a 3-days weekend with the Allocine crowd; that’s Nath, Charline, Val, Nico, Bastien, Vincent, Aurel, plus Pariss who joined them on Saturday while I wasn’t here- long story short, we all saw each other from Friday to Sunday. It’s funny how we started as a bunch of people talking about Harry Potter on some forums, and how we’re all good friends now… But no matter how we met, we had incredible fun during our short time together -well, I did, even though my sisters kinda ruined the whole thing (yes, they did, and I’m still very upset over that, but there’s no point bitching about that). Anyways…

It all started on Friday, at noon, when I had lunch with my Precious Crush fellow shipper, Val. Wa had this unbelievable laugh over the weird ramblings she had on the phone (“euh demain, aprÃ¨s demain”, “on va au Parc Asterix”, “bonne soiree Charline”, mwhahahahaha). It was just one of the funniest moment in my entire life, I swear. We laughed so much, our ribs actually hurt. Thank you for this wonderful laugh, Val, I mean it, it was just glorious…

Then Charline arrived. I picked her up at the train station with Nico and Nath and the four of us went to see Jarhead together. I must say, I truely love Sam Mendes’ brillant directing, and Lucas Black’s character (the Texan marine, Kruger). I reckon Jarhead‘s snub in this year’s award season is real unfair, I simply don’t get it.

After the movies, we went to pick up Vincent and Aurel -both arrived at different train stations, and we finally got home. To my utter dismay, I found it completely crowded -friends of my sisters and such. I have to say, it pissed the fuck out of me (sorry for being so rude, but it’s still very fresh in my mind). I wanted to have a quiet, empty apartment where we could enjoy ourselved, and here were all these people who had come over without no warnings whatsoever. I was very upset indeed.

The next day, Bastien and Val arrived, and everyone took off for Disneyland -except myself, thanks to a very selfish and authoritarian mother. But that was alright, really, because I wanted them to see what it’s like over there in Disney, and have fun even without me. And apparently, they really did, which was everything I asked for. You can probably read a detailed description of their day on Pariss and Val’s blogs (both can be found in the links section).

Although the fun-filled day in Disney must have been exhausting, everyone came home pretty satisfied. They brought me this adorable turtle from Finding Nemo (not a real one, obviously, just a teddy bear). “Jackennis” is its official name (hmm, I wonder what that comes from !).

Aurel and Vincent cooked us a delicious dinner, and we all enjoyed it, but that was not before they gave Nath and myself our birthday presents (they are 10 days apart or so). And it was the most beautiful gift I’ve ever recieved -a photo album, assembled by my dear Val, with some gorgeous pictures and little words from everyone. I was so touched -hell I came close to tears when I read Darky’s words (who unfortunately wasn’t there). Nath, who had also recieved a similar present, bawled when she read hers, and it was pretty emotive. I also received some wonderful DVDs from everyone. For Chrissake, if that ain’t the best birthday I ever had, I don’t know what it was…

Once dinner was over, we started that game suggested by Vincent, and it was this complicated thing where you had to write down things on a piece of paper, then talk about it, in order for people to guess what it was, then mime it etc. It was tough, man, and way too long to explain it here, but loads of fun. Then, because Nicolai was here and that Pariss had the brillant idea to offer me a Monopoly Special Edition – Lord of the Rings for my birthday, we played the silly boardgame. And the guys were *so* mean to us -it was truely revolting ! But it was real fun, too. And Nico totally did not win, which I guess, was the funniest part (sorry Nico, but you deseved that one !). By the time we all went to bed, it was 5 a.m. or something.

The next morning, we were all pretty much shitfaced. Heh. But it wasn’t over : an unexpected guest turned up -my fuckin’ aunt. And because she would have babbled everything to my mum, I had to get the guys out of the house *very* quickly. I totally freaked out, but fortunately, everything went well, and the guys came back when my aunt left.

We managed to watch the Lost pilot in DVD (Nath was offered the complete first season, that’s why) and then everyone left, except Bastien, whose train was to depart later on, in the evening. I was very much saddened by the thought of us not being all together like that all the time, but I guess you only want what you can’t have, so there you go (and that sentence doesn’t make much sense, does it ?).

Well, that’s it. I’m done talking about this weekend. Mucho thanks to everyone who came -you made my day, you really did, and you guys are just the most amazing bunch of people I’ve ever met. Not that I know a lot of people too, but… yeah, I
feel real lucky to have befriended you guys, and hopefully, we’ll keep this great thing we have going on for a long time. *wipes tears*

In other good news, I passed my exams successfully and got grades I think I can be proud of.

In other bad news, everyone is now on holidays except my poor self. Went back to school on Monday, and things haven’t changed a bit, which is very boring and annoying.

In other really good news, Walk the Line, The New World and Syriana, three movies I’ve been eagerly anticipating for a long time are about to be released ! Triple-squee.

And I finally own all the Lemony Snicket books. All 12 of them ! Was about time, too.

And while we’re at it, I finally got to see The Godfather and Raging Bull, two movies I very much wanted to see. Well, they live up to their reputation, because they’re so goddamn good. Especially the Godfather, who was kinda violent but incredibly well-acted and well-directed. And the characters, God… They really are something, and I can completely understand why they’re part of film history now. Marlon Brando -there’s no words to describe how brillant his performance is. I couldn’t believe how good he was, how powerful his acting was. Never saw that onscreen anywhere else, and I don’t think I ever will. Gee, he was just astonishingly good. I can still hear his voice in my head, I swear I can.

Now I just have the Shawshank Redemption left. It’s like this one movie I really, really want to see.

Hmm, I think I’ll stop talking now -this post is way longer than I thought it would be. Sorry about that.

Last-minute edit : the Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue scans. Feast your eyes, people. Guh. Re-guh. They all look so almighty good, it’s unnatural. Philip Seymour Hoffman is goddamn gorgeous (yeah, I know, but I think he really is!), and so is Terrence Howard… Joaquin Phoenix is just beyond words, and Heath and Jake and… *dead*. Not them. I am.